28 Apr 2011

Good morning all! (Well good morning Brits and whatever else to all my international readers!)I was struggling for inspiration on these pictures of me at York on a day out with my hubby. Then I came across a card my mom sent me with this cute little couple on it holding hands. I then came up with the idea of making my own paper chain and I got a poem from the internet for my journalling. I struggle to always think what to write when I have a few pics of the same occassion.Here are some close-ups:It was completed using a sketch from The Scrappiest.

27 Apr 2011

As promised the final pics of our easter dessert bar. Above are the rabbit whoopees which my lil sis Gem made. Below are her oreo cake pops, which were my husbands fav so I will have to have a go at making them. I have tried before and they became a big sticky, sludgy mess.
My older sister, Tamara, works for the English Cheesecake company and this is one of their chocolate fudge cakes. She is a new product developer and so gets to design and test out new products - is that not the BEST JOB EVER!? I don't know how she stays so slim.
My humble addition to the table was the floral cookies. I included the recipe in this post if you want to try to make them. They were very easy and very tasty.
Gem also made these delicious coconut cupcakes. She even made the little eggs on top with a mould and I think they look really professional. Can you see how difficult it is to diet in our family?
Here's one of the finished table. We do have another sister, but she doesn't like having her picture taken, so you will rarely see her featured on my blog. But rest assured she did enjoy eating the treats.
I know these are usually made for parties and events, but when our family gets together it always is an event and Gems loves featuring them on her cupcake blog.
What traditions do your family have when they get together?

26 Apr 2011

Doesn't the bride look stunning? Below are the teaching trio! Do you like my new dress?
Above are some snaps of the gorgeous wedding I attended yesterday. The weather was so perfect for them and it was just a fab day with loads of cute little touches. I will post more pics later.
Many more exciting posts to follow, especially since I found some retro scrapbooks whilst clearing out my parents attic. They helped to remind me why I do all this, as I experienced such genuine joy and pleasure at looking through them and remembering the events recorded and reading how I felt and what I was like at 14.
Plan to do some scrapping tomorrow too as the weather is turning and I won't feel so guilty about being holed up inside.
Hope all my English readers had a fab bank holiday. Thanks for your support and comments.

21 Apr 2011

Ohhh I posted my previous post on facebook and have had loads more pageviews...perhaps I shouldn't keep my little blog all to myself and other scrappers. I sometimes worry that it is a bit geeky to non-scrappers and think they will percieve me as a wierdo who sits in her spare room cutting out flowers and hearts...does anyone else think this? So anyways back to my "geeky" scrapping. I tried two new techniques on this page:1) Using lace cardstock as a mask and misting with two different colours. The result of which I am totally loving - a lot more interesting than just using the lace cardstock.2) Julie Kirk's cute little cartoon style stamping technique. I have not described it well so check it out here. I didn't do a strip as I didn't really have space. I also don't have any cute little stamps of people, so had to settle for a squirrel as it's all I had, but it did fit in well with the layout.This is completed using part of the lyrics from Aerosmith's Livin' On the edge for Scrap it with a Song challenge. In my teens I was a big Aerosmith fan and I remember distinctly using one of their albums on random to decide which boy I should go out with. Ahh the innocence of youth! And the joy of having options! If I don't get to blog anymore over the weekend HAPPY EASTER to all my followers and readers of my blog. Hope you all get lots of exciting treats from the easter bunny - check out my previous post for a great easter cookie recipe.

Check out these babies chilling in the sun....My slave driver of a little sister is insisting the good for our easter dessert bar at the weekend. The colour scheme is yellow and green and she has even made a mood board. I made these cookies and then had fun decorating them with royal icing. The recipe (from Cookie Magic) is listed below so you can give them a go over the bank holiday:-
Basic Butter Biscuit
250g / generous 1 cup softened butter
140 g icing sugar sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large free-range egg yolk
375g / 2 3/4 cup plain flour
1) Beat butter and sugar together until very pale and fluffy
2) Add vanilla and egg yolk and mix well
3) Sift in flour and mix until it forms a firm dough. You may need to get your hands in and form it into a ball.
4) Wrap in cling film and chill for an hour (I didn't and it was fine!)
5) Preheat oven to 190 degrees / 375f and place cut shapes onto a silicone liner (I just brought some and they are a dream)
6) Bake for 10-12 mins until they are pale golden. Then transfer to a wire rack.
7) Put a few drops of food colouring on prebrought regal icing and then roll out and punch the same shape. Place a smartie or chocolate button in the middle.
8) Step back and admire and then devour.
Enjoy!

20 Apr 2011

Above is a little gem of a layout. I loved these pics taken by my bro-in-law Byron and was excited to scrap them. I have always enjoyed using the Mission to Create challenges as they are very specific, yet flexible and they are a good stash buster. The requirements were:-

Deborah- Make a list as part of your journaling

Jocie- Primary colors

Nicole- Use a journalling card

Vanesa- Use a mini calendar

Ania -The following inspiration (a cute postcard)

I was mission successful and used all of them. The different coloured lettering was especially good as I got to use up all of my odd thickers. I am pleased with this layout and it is taking pride of place on my wall in my scrap room.

Long may the sunshine continue. We had been "trapped" in the house and garden today as our mot was pending and we were like a kid on exam day when the phone call came - the good news was that we only had one thing to fix and then it passed - soooo much better than all the issues with the KA!Yesterday we had a mini adventure and walked the six miles to Pool in the blazing sunshine. It was a longer run than I thought and my flip flops weren't the comfiest of foot wear! However it was all worth it as we stopped at a gorgeous little pub called The White Hart. We sat on the terrace soaking up the sun and Arne had a homemade burger and I had a gorgeous stonebaked pizza - yum! Here are some pics we took on route - it was a very good photo day today! Hope you've all had a non-stressful hump day and enjoy your evening. (We are off to Orange Wednesday!)

19 Apr 2011

So fellow bloggers I had all these great pics of a fancy dress party I went to in early March, but felt they needed something special to scrap them - really bright and striking. So I completed a double layout using this sketch.
Below I went crazy with the stamps as I have so many great ones and I rarely use them. I enjoyed making this pattern to border my layout. I also sliced the pic to replicate all the little pics from the sketch. I then emphasised some with pop dots and contrasting colours of cardstock.
The second part of the layout I used gesso and masked the title. Although I forgot my own (Tessa's!) little tip of sticking the letters to my jeans first and so they peeled off a bit of the paper too, but it kind of adds to the shabby chic look. I feel this layout should be embellished a bit more, but I was running low on inspiration and everything I added just clashed or looked silly so...this is it.
In other news since the weather is usually so overcast in England we headed to the historic and beautiful York for a wonder on Monday and he actually let me take some pics * yay * So I had to really make the most of it and climb the historic walls and strike a pose. There are about thirty of these, but I will spare you all!
Well he *let* me take the pic, but smiling clearly wasn't in the bargain!
My icecream was toffee honeycomb - yum!
In fact today we also had a mini adventure in the sun and took lots of snaps...so more to come later!
Thanks for looking and for your much appreciated comments!

18 Apr 2011

Come Dine with Me part 2 took place on Friday night...it was another real feast. I wore my maxi dress as it is roomy and stretchy and more roomy than jeans - lol!
We had mousakka, stuffed vine leaves, plenty of hummous and pita, butter bean goulash and a delicious chocolate and cherry cake for dessert...

As you can see everyone enjoyed tucking in. We were drawn as the next hosts and are thinking of a gastro pub theme as we were discussing that Britain didn't really have a strong, culinary rep so we will try to right that and are looking forward to the challenge. Any recipes or ideas please comment...

So I was very attracted to this sketch and was looking forward to getting messy, but the paint was playing up and so I settled for good old glimmer mist. I wanted to make this page as:
* I love this bright and airy pic
* I wanted to make a layout as a homage to my sister returning from TC
* I love the sketch
I made this layout quite simple as it all fell into place nicely and I used my fav colours purple and turquoise.
Now the question is what do I do for the next two weeks of easter hols...

16 Apr 2011

In fact this is an ironic post title as it is the start of the easter hols...woo hoo! I ordered all my valentine pics and these are the gorgeous flowers my hubby got me. It was funny as he only got them cos he was pressured by all the ladies he works with - hence the title!
I used another one of Shimelle's fab sketches and liked clashing all the bright prints. I am LOVING my new journalling spots from TKMaxx and they have been featuring on most of my layouts!
I blinged my butterflies and sub-heading which reads "Of.v.day".
Will be back soon with some pics of our second Come Dine with Me meal. It was a Greek feast...

13 Apr 2011

This has been mostly completed for ages...but was just waiting on a delivery from snapfish for the final two sections. I am pleased with it (a lot more pleased than my March one which is causing problems at the moment!) I think the colours work well and I have avoided an overly twee valentines layout. Only two more days till easter hols...cannot w...a...i...t...!

10 Apr 2011

I liked these pics of my parents' recent visit to us. The sun was shining brightly and we had a fun day out. I used a free map from the library for the circle part and peeled back the corrugated card to make a title block, edged with brown ink.
My new fav thing is shaped cardstock as it really frames a page and makes it stand out.
I have my fingers crossed for more beautiful sunshine this week!
Check out the sketch for this page on Sarah's cards....

9 Apr 2011

Have spent the best part of today cupcaking...phew! It's hard work! Especially using the hand mixer and having to double all the ingredients - I've never been great at Maths! Ha! I used The Primrose bakery recipe book for malted cupcakes and then the Hummingbird bakery recipe for vanilla frosting, but added some ovaltine to make it malted too. I then topped them all with half a juicy strawberry (we got a whole huge punnet of them on sale at Asda - delish!)
Here the strawbs are all spilling from the punnet...
I then wrapped them up in plastic party bags from Hobby Craft and tied them up with pretty ribbon. They are for all the ladies at church as a late mother's day gift from the Primary kids. Hopefully they will be appreciated - they took me all day! (Well except for the few hours that we were at the Royal Amouries where I was so annoyed as I left the camera in the car and there were loads of great photo ops!)
What did you all get up to in the sunshine??

Check out Shimelle.com for a great tutorial. I ordered these pics just with this sketch in mind and thought that including one in black and white would break it up and give the layout a bit of variety. It is me in my Wilemena costume for Comic Relief. I liked all the borders and strips required for this sketch and felt it framed the page really well.
I will defo use this sketch again...

7 Apr 2011

A couple of snapshots from our little family reunion with my sister and her hubby at the weekend. Those who follow my blog will know that they have been teaching in Turks and Caicos for since September and so it was lovely to see them again - all tanned and blonde. It was wierd as saying "hi" again it didn't feel as though they had been gone for ages. We made a dessert bar in Gem's honour...I will post some more close up pics at the weekend along with the recipe for my chocolate marshmallow malt cupcakes - they were delish! Back in the scrappy saddle again. As a-levels and GCSE's loom I am feeling the pressure on behalf of the kids and making sure they are ready for all their exams. Took some time out though to scrap...and catch up on Glee. This is a retro pic of my sisters and I being bridesmaids. It's a funny story as I look miserable in all the pics as I felt really sick on the day and blamed it on the hairdresser who pulled my hair back really tightly!